Today’s FYI is about my favorite subject, Chinese Traditional Massage (CTM). I’ve had several since I’ve been here as it’s very inexpensive. The Chinese consider it an important part of staying and/or getting healthy and there are massage places everywhere. I go to a very nice place close to my home where a 45 minute CTM is $14. The massage person is usually a very petite, shy girl with a pair of hands that could crush a goat should the need arise (I’m thinking It probably does here). The massages here are AMAZING, whatever kind you get. CTM is my favorite though because it really does work out whatever issues/blockages are going on. However, imagine that you’re having your spinal cord separated from the rest of your body, but you just keep going and praying her knee won’t end up in your eardrum and soon enough you’ll be feeling great! I believe she actually moved my liver from one side to the other (but since there are usually two glasses of wine being filtered in there at any given time, I didn’t feel anything).

Anypleasurepainhoo, here’s a little background on the Chinese Traditional Massage or Tuina. Tuina dates back more than 2,000 years. Back then it was called Anwu, ‘An’ meaning Press and ‘Wu’ meaning Rub. In 1949, the Chinese government officially recognised the medical benefits of massage and termed it Tuina, ‘Tui’ meaning Push, ‘Na’ meaning Grasp. (I wonder if it was just too long to call it ‘Jab hard in the back with your elbow’). Deep Tissue, Acupressure, Shiatsu, Chiropractic manipulations and many other forms of massage are derived from the practices of Tuina. Hospitals here all have massage therapy as part of their treatments for all types of physical ailments, but also including many illnesses.

I threw that in for a little fun. There are also “other” kinds of massage here…